The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1887-08-17
NO. 35.
CARLOADS OF MONEY.
THE AMOUNT OF MONEY IN THE
NATIONAL TREASURY.

THE AMOUNT OF MONEY IN THE
NATIONAL TREASURY.
Some Startling Figures About the Quanti-
ty of Money in the United States Treasu-
ry--The Public Debt Half Paid.
WASHINGTON, August Few persons,
perhaps, who read the frequently pub
lished reports of the fiscal operations of
the government give any consideration
to the vastness and significance of these
operations. We read of the hundreds
of millions of gold and silver in the
treasury, but how few persons have any
Intelligent idea of what is embraced in
the nine figures required to describe the
liabilities and assets of the government?
1t IS only y when the auriferous contents
of the treasury vaults are weighed and
measured and placed by the side of arti-
cles and commodities that are daily
handled by the masses that an intelligent
comprehension can be obtained by the
people of the financial strength of the
treasury and the great extent of the gov
ernment's fiscal operations.
find by reference to the latest pub
llshed statement of treasury assets and
liabilities that among the assets was
G2Sl ,096,317 in gold and nearly $780,
OOO,C00 in silver, including 81, 900, 900
Of trade dollars and fractional coins.
Taking up this S2S1, 100000 of gold and
placing it on scales, I find that the gold
held by the treasury weighed 519 tons,
and if packed into ordinary carts, one
ton to each cart, it would make pro-
cession two miles long, allowing twenty
feet Of space for the movement of each
horse and cart.
The weighing of the silver produces
much more interesting results. Running
this over the scales I find it's weight to
be 1896 tons. Measuring it in carts, as
in the case Of the gold, the silver now
held by the treasury would require the
services Of 1896 horses and carts to
transport it and would make procession
over tHenty-one miles in length.
The surplus about which so much is
said in the daily newspapers amounts to
nearly S47,000,000, an increase of
S5,0O0,00O since July l. Counted as
gold this surplus would weigh eighty
six and one-half tons. Counted as silver
it would weigh 1885 tons.
Each million of gold ADDS 3, ,6S5 pounds
to the surplus, and each million Of silver
adds $3.50 pounds.
Applying cubic measurement to the
treasury gold and silver, and piling the
two metals on Pennsylvania avenue as
cordwood is piled before delivery to the
purchaser, find that the gold would
measure tLirty-seven cords and the silver
t92 cords, and that both would extend
from the treasury department to A
street, or from the treasury to the pen
sion office in straight line, and forming
a solid wall eight feet high and four feet
broad.
Extending these calculations and COM
parisons to the interest-bearing debt,
equally interesting results are obtained.
The public debt reached the highest
years ago-when it was S2,3Sl, $50, ,295.
The general reader will better appreciate
the 7astness OF this sum when informed
that it represents 10, l56 tons of silver,
which would make procession of carts
that would extend from Richmond, Va,
to point twelve miles north of Phila-
deiphia, the distance it would thus cover
being 266 miles.
The interest bearing debt is now (not
including the Pacific Railroad bonds),
Sl,OOl, :, $50, showing that the sum
paid has been 1879, $50, AS, or more
than one-half Of the total amount, and
representing 10, ,637 tons of silver dollars,
which would extend 154 miles if packed
in carts containing one ton each.
Reducing these figures to basis
where they may be intelligently COM
pretended, and that the rapidity with
which the government has reduced its
bonded debt may be fully realized by
the general reader, I find that the reduc-
ton has been at the average rate Of
SG2, ,G06, ,965 each year, S., ,225, ,5Sl each
month, STA, 1856 each day, S7,25S each
hour, and Sl20.47 for every minute of
the entire twenty-five years.
Pursuing the calculation to the smallest
divisible space Of time, the bonded debt
of the United States has been decreased
at the rate of S20.07 every second, or for
every swing of the pendulum, for the
entire period from August 81, 1865, to
July 81, 1887,
This is an exhibition of recuperation
and material progress on the part of the
country and OF sterling honesty and in
tegrity on the part OF the government
and people that is without parallel in the